Someone asked me how my blog and newspaper column came to be titled "Bleachers Brew". It's like this, it's an amalgam of sorts of two things: The bleachers area in the stadium/arena where I used to sit when I would watch baseball, football, and basketball games and Miles Davis' great jazz album Bitches Brew. That's how it got culled together. I originally planned on calling it "The View from the Big Chair" that is a nod to Tears For Fear's second album, Songs from the Big Chair. So there.

The Uruguayan coach spotted Ceres
winger Jayson Panhay racing up unmarked on the left flank as Kaya’s defense was
looking for an attack to come up the middle or the right.

Ceres defender Hyung Min Sim surveyed
his options then quickly launched a forward pass to Panhay who only had center
back Masa Omura to beat. Panhay ditched him and that forced Kaya keeper Saba
Garmaroudi to rush out.

From a 45° angle, Panhay launched a
delicate chip to the far post for the opening goal in the 24th
minute. What was perhaps even more mortifying was the fact that the other Kaya
defenders – Dario Dakic and Junior Muñoz failed to cover the line when
Garmaroudi rushed out.

That wasn’t the first that Rozen
warned of the danger lurking from the wings. On two separate occasions before
Panhay’s run, he called out to Mallari and to forward Eric Dagroh but they
didn’t hear his admonitions.

Seven minutes after Panhay’s goal,
Byeong Jun Yoon collected a punch out to hammer a shot from 18 yards out to
double Ceres’ lead.

That almost put the fight out of Kaya
that was smarting from the near loss of its entire back four of the last three
UFL tournaments. Former team captain and long time fixture at center back Ali
Borromeo has still not fully recovered from his knee injury. Anton Del Rosario
just got back from his own injury and was not listed for the tournament.
Centerback Jason Sabio is back in Alabama working to get his degree from law
school. Adrian Semblat is now with Nomads while Nico Bolzico isn’t even listed.

Kaya came out from the halftime break
with new resolve as they had Ceres on their heels. The club’s new game changer
since the UFL Cup has been speedy midfielder OJ Porteria whose dazzling balls
skills allow him to break down defenders. He did it to Loyola and he found his
way down the right goal line to fire a cross that Chris Greatwich blasted home
in the 49th minute.

Kaya had four excellent chances to
equalize but Kross Ubiam, Dario Dakic, and Greatwich missed their shots.

Ceres mostly on the defensive the
entire second half got their second wind when Omura tripped up a player inside
the box. Gun Hee Choi sent Garmaroudi the wrong way to give them an
insurmountable 3-1 lead with less than 10 minutes to play. The penalty shot
sent Ceres to the finals of the PFF Smart National Club Championship at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium in a most impressive manner.

Ceres has been taking names on its way
to local club football immortality. In the Round of 16, they dispatched UFL Cup
champion with a stunning 1-0 win. They followed that up with an equally
impressive ambush of Global with a similar score line before facing Kaya in the
finals.

The Bacolod-based club’s run caused a
huge dent on the armor of invincibility of the Metro Manila sides and Ceres
accomplished it while playing Imperial Manila’s game.

Ceres is normally entirely composed of
homegrown talent. When they decided to participate in the tournament, they
picked up key Korean and English players to beef up their squad. Along with a couple
of UFL cast offs Jason Cordova, Jung Mook Kim, and Yoon (Stallion) as well as
Lemuel Unabia (Green Archers United). The latter three are all starters for
Ceres and have had an impact with the Negros side.

Kaya’s aggressive play in the opening
minutes didn’t give Ceres the run of the field as they did against Global in
the quarterfinals. But the final pass to the forwards was wanting and
eventually hurt Kaya. The sudden substitution of Dagroh for Kenshiro Daniels
hurt their aggressiveness up front. Although Daniels acquitted himself well in
the second half, his lack of experience couldn’t get him past Cordova who
marked him well.

One of Kaya’s strengths in recent
years was the speed and aggressiveness of Prince Mark Boley. But he is no
longer in a Kaya uniform as the club has undergone a facelift.

However, there is promise for Rozen’s
team. In the meantime, Ceres will get to fulfill theirs as they are in the
finals of the PFF Smart National Club Championship against a depleted Pasargad
side. In the main game of the semifinals double header, Pasargad came back from
two goals down to forge a penalty shootout with Green Archers United to come
away 2-1 winners.

With Danny Claxton and Peter Long after their stunning 3-1 win over Kaya to advance to the finals of the 2013 PFF Smart National Club Championships.

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What I do for a living?

I have many jobs and put on many hats.

I work for The Social Standard where I am the Head of Content for thesocialstandard.net

I also write regularly for Business Mirror; ph.nba.com; philstar.com; pba.inquirer.net; and abs-cbnnews.com. I am also the editor-in-chief of PBA Life, the Official Lifestyle Magazine of the Philippine Basketball Association.

I am also currently the media officer for the Filoil Flying V Hanes Premier Cup and the National Basketball Training Center.

I do PR consultancy for a variety of clients that I do not want to divulge.

My blog, Bleachers' Brew, serves as a hub for many of my writings (but not all as there are some that are exclusive).

When I have free time, I listen to my collection of over 5,000 CDs, read, watch DVDs, or walk my dog around the subdivision.

Liverpool FC

My all-time favorite football team. I bleed Liverpool Red.

Books in my collection: The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais

Good taste is not the birthright of snobs, but a gift from God sometimes found in the unlikeliest of people.